


lycanthropy and josie

by TranquilStars



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff, THIS IS SELF CARE, Teasing, and me ignoring my problems, hope is oblivious, josie is very gay, thank you.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24481948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TranquilStars/pseuds/TranquilStars
Summary: Josie would've been assigned Rafael for her project if he wasn't sick.But now she has Hope.And, jesus christ, she might die.(Or fail. Whichever comes first.)
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 7
Kudos: 266





	1. day one

Class projects suck in a lot of ways, and Josie hates the project she’s currently doing for her Intro to Lycanthropy class. 

To rehash the events of her class, her teacher strolled up to the front of the class and dribbled a few instructions of the class’ new projects. Due in five days, no exceptions or extensions. 

“All of you will be assigned a werewolf partner for this, and you’ll get to know them and ask about their history.”

Sounds like a blast, doesn’t it? Well, in the beginning, Josie was ecstatic. Rafael was chosen as her partner, and they were close friends. Sure, there was that unrequited crush she once had on him, but it had faded away long ago. She would enjoy this project if it was just talking to close friend.

Then, a new monster came. It was the representation of pestilence, and gave half the school a ravenous fever. While many recovered easily thanks to a good immune system after surviving so long in the school, Rafael wasn’t performing so hotly. He was new, so his immune system was weaker. He was still recovering, and since Josie couldn’t ask a puking mess about his history as a werewolf, her teacher assigned her one more.

The last “werewolf” left for partnering; Hope Mikaelson.

‘’’

The air was tense, with Josie sitting on one of Hope’s fold-out couches, twiddling with her fingers on her lap. It was quiet, almost sickenly quiet.

“So, you want tea?” Hope asked, clearing the silence and crossing her legs. 

Josie stayed quiet, her legs swinging and heels hitting the couch.

More silence, awkward coughs, and the ticking of Hope’s clock atop the wall.

“Come on, Josie,” Hope stood up, sitting directly across from the girl. “Don’t you have a project? Just… ask what you gotta.” the brunette smirked and quirked up her top lip. “I don’t bite. See? No sharp canines.”

Josie rolled her toes inside her shoes, avoiding eye contact with the tribrid, “This was a bad idea. I’ll just fail.”

Josie stood up, adjusting the scarf over her neck and attempting to reach the door. However, Hope gripped the girl by the wrist with quick reflexes, pulling her back with some strength. Josie tugged away, murmuring something fast and unintelligible. At Hope’s third pull, Josie turned around slightly, but it was a bad mistake.

“What’s your deal, Jos— _ aih _ !” the pull might have used a bit more strength than Hope intended, because Josie was forced to spin around completely and buckle over Hope’s lap, both shoulders hunched over Hope’s left one. “Sorry.”

Both of the brunette knees were sprawled opposite of Hope’s crossed legs. Josie’s cheeks immediately flushed to a deep red. Her eyes flashed to either of Hope’s, before she leaned all the way back in an attempt to escape the awkward position.

However, two hands cradled her back and pulled her in closer, so that their chests bumped and noses brushed. Safe to say, Josie’s face was now completely crimson with color. Her mind was… doing a lot of things, but mostly it was pots and pans banging and clashing, creating ruckus inside her messy mind.

“Don’t fall,” Hope breathed, a thin strip of blush around her cheek lines. The hands slowly inched away and released Josie from the hold.

Josie scrambled away from the position as soon as her mind snapped back to the right place, but she couldn’t even bring herself to form a sentence. All she could say was, “sorry,” and “shoot.”

Before Hope could say anything about it, she scooped up her bags and shuffled out of the door in a speed run, “Thanks Hope, bye Hope, sorry Hope, sorry sorry sorry!”

Hope leaned back on both her hands, staring at the girl’s bolt from the room and how she left the door to Hope’s room slightly ajar. Just as she expected, Josie came running back and quickly shut the door—and thanks to Hope’s werewolf hearing—a mumbled apology following her all the way down the halls.


	2. day two

“So, I told her that I couldn’t do the spell and she flipped  _ out _ ,” Lizzie was droning on about some girl in her science class that was being a ‘witchy bitch,’ according to Lizzie. “like, “trying to set me on fire,” kind of flipped out.”

“Mhmm,” Josie propped her head on her hand, elbow spiked on the table. 

Lizzie crossed her arms and raised both eyebrows, “Yeah, so I tore her head off and chewed off her ear.”

“Mmm,” Josie mumbled, not exactly listening.

Lizzie scoffed and knocked her sister’s elbow with her hand, causing Josie to rattle awake from her slight reality slumber. 

“Agh!  _ Lizzie _ !” Josie complained, earning a bump on her forehead from where her head met the table.

“What’s on your mind, Jo?”

“I’d like to know, too,” Josie’s head shot up at the sound of the lilting female voice.

_ Dammit Hope _ ! Josie cried out in her head. The russet-haired tribrid sat down at their table, staring directly at Josie.

“Do you want to actually get something done on that project, Jo-Jo?” Hope asked, intertwining her fingers and leaning her chin on them.

Josie’s shoulders shook at the nickname. It’s what Penelope always called her, even after Josie had declared that she hated it. “Please don’t call me that.”

Hope’s smile brightened, “Penelope told me that you’d hate it.”

“Why am I not surprised that you spoke to Satan?” Lizzie butted in, investigating her cuticles soundly. “Josie, can you please just go do your project so Hope will leave me alone?”

Josie dropped one of her french fries back on her tray and wiped her hands, sending salt flying and sprinkling. She stood up using both hands, looking Hope directly in the eyes. “Kay, Hope, let’s go.”

```

“Okay, Josie, I’m not gonna sit in this room in silence again.” 

Josie scribbled circles on her notebook, right over where the question mark was in the questions her teacher had printed. 

“I’m serious.” the tribrid said again after a few minutes.

Josie groaned and read out the first question on her paper, “What’s the best thing about being a wolf?”

“Hm, running, I suppose?” Hope leaned forward, “But I’ve heard some people say my eyes look best gold.”

Josie dropped her notebook in her lap, giving Hope a quick look of ‘ _ come on _ .’

“Awh, come on, Josie. This is the first thing you’ve asked me in a while. I wanna do  _ some _ joking.” the russet-haired student smirked, eyes glimmering. “Speaking of, what’s with ignoring me?”

“Nothing, just really hating these school projects.” 

Hope raised an eyebrow. Josie stretched out and faked a yawn, “Well, time to sleep. See you tomorrow, Hope.”

Two hands gripped both of her outstretched wrists and spun the siphon around. Josie’s back was now pressed against Hope’s front, wrists held playfully by her sides. Even though Josie was taller than her, Hope still had quite a lot of strength.

“Uh-uh, tell me what’s wrong.”

Josie struggled slightly, but stopped when she realized that it only created friction between Hope and Josie’s touching areas. She groaned, “Hope, let me go.” 

“Why are you avoiding me?” Hope whined, holding Josie’s wrists higher up so they were out in a ‘T’. “Just tell me.”

“I’ll set you on fire, Hope.”

Hope swayed Josie side to side, “Tell me...” 

“I know a  _ lot _ of fire spells…”

“Tell me, tell me, tell me…” 

“ _ Hooope _ !” 

The siphon managed to struggle from the grip of her wrists and spun around so that her chest bumped into Hope’s. However, the tribrid grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer, towards the bed. Hope clutched Josie’s waist and spun around so Josie’s back laid flat against the edge of the bed, and Hope hovered over her. Josie’s brain? Pots and pans.  _ Banging _ .  _ Yelling _ .

“Nope, you won’t get off that easily!”

Two knocks on the door paused them. It paused Hope’s moving hands, Josie’s kicking feet and struggling torso. 

“Hope, the monster trap was activated.” Alaric’s voice came from outside. “Hope?”

The tribrid turned to Josie, her russet hair falling over the siphon’s face. She smiled brightly, eyes wide.

“To be continued.”

“What about my project, Hope?”

“To be continued, times two."


	3. day three [and four]

Okay, so, according to her Human World History studies, Hope was the bubonic plague. She’d had a headache for days and an extremely high fever. So, that also could’ve been from hanging out with a sniffling M.G. all day yesterday instead of working on her project with Hope… but she wouldn’t have been hanging out with M.G. if Rafael was still her partner so technically it’s her fault.

“ _ Lizzie _ ,” she whined through a metaphorical fish net of rasping and coughing. 

Her sister poked her head in the room and smiled sympathetically. “Yeah?”

“Can you…” she broke apart her sentence by arching her neck forward, scooping stray locks that had tumbled out of her bun into her hands, and puking into the trash bin beside her bed. “ _ Urgh _ … Water… tissues?”

Lizzie rushed over and lightly patted her sister’s back. Sick people weren’t her mojo, obviously, but it was important that she tried for her twin. She was talking to Rafael a lot, taking care of him while he was quarantined, and so she’d learned a lot.

She hummed and nodded, gathering the stray hairs and tucking them gently back into the hair tie that loosely held her sister’s bun. “Yes, Josie, of course. Stay strong, you’ll be over it soon enough.”

With that, her sister left the room to get some tissues and a glass of water.

It had only been a few hours after Lizzie reluctantly left to visit with Rafael when Hope came rushing in, panic in her eyes, that set and then resurfaced seeing Josie’s limp, pale-balloon-like body. The door to Josie’s dorm was swinging on its one hinge that survived Hope’s entrance.

“Oh, crap, Jo, you okay?”

“ _ H _ op _ e _ …” she coughed, her voice like a bunch of knives climbing up her raw throat. “Did…. you… my  _ door _ …”

“Oh,  _ oh _ , okay, okay,” the russet-haired tribrid rushed over and placed a hand on the girl’s forehead carefully. “Don’t talk, okay? Just rest.”

“Would… not… have to talk… if you… hadn’t...—” she started, feeling a lump of vomit rise inside her.

Hope shushed her quickly, wiping the girl’s sweaty face with her sleeve. “Yes, we get it, Jo, you’re stubborn as a mule.”

“Your fault.” she said simply, starting to fall asleep, which she cursed her body for.

“My fault, huh?” the girl asked with a smirk on her face.

Josie nodded languidly and dropped her head on her pillow, shutting her eyes. She felt wisps of a touch on her forehead and her blanket being retucked.

Josie’s dream was peeled away as she woke slowly, becoming aware of her surroundings. She believed the remnants of her dream were Hope turning her into a dog while Lizzie desperately tried to teach her how to play fetch. Speaking of the two, When Josie’s eyes crawled open and her eyelashes batted away her eye crust, she got a rare sight of the two getting along.

Hope was sitting on a loveseat she’d pulled to lay near Josie’s bed, and Lizzie was sitting on the actual bed. They were chatting in a low whisper, and seemed to be…  _ happy about it _ ? 

“Am I still… in my dream?” she asked groggily, and both of girls’ heads snapped to attention. Quickly, before she knew it, Hope was pressing a cold cloth against her forehead and Lizzie was sighing in relief and rubbing her leg.

“You slept for like… a  _ whole _ day.” Lizzie commented casually, retrieving a glass of water from the desk and handing it to her twin.

Josie sat up, knocking Hope’s towel off her head and throwing the sheets off. “So… So… It’s… It’s… March… March 25th? I—”

“Woah, woah,  _ woah _ , antsy,” Hope scolded, pushing back on Josie’s shoulders so she way lying back in bed. “Let’s see how you’re feeling before you get up like a stubborn mule you are.”

Josie winced as she was laid back down, feeling the grease and dandruff that has been building on her pillow for… however long she’d been bedridden. “I’m okay… I feel better. I gotta… I have to get up.”

Lizzie and Hope shared a look of disbelieving eyebrow raises. Then they turned to lock eyes with Josie. Josie could only pick one of them to look at, so she picked Lizzie to avoid confrontation with her crush. Did she just say crush? Okay, it’s not a  _ crush _ , just a… slight admirance. Yeah.

“Hope, take her temperature.” Lizzie said with an approving nod, and Josie’s head snapped to the tribrid in worry. It had to be  _ Hope _ ?

“I’ve got it. Stick out your tongue.” 

“What? But you don’t even have a thermometer.”

“I know a spell.”

Josie’s eyes bulged and she blinked multiple times. Hope stayed serious though, rolling her wrist in a circle as to say,  _ Well? Hurry up!  _ Slowly, Josie’s mouth opened and she stuck out her tongue timidly, pretty sure that this was the most awkward thing that she’s ever done.

“ _ Salutem et febricitantem _ ,” she whispered, and cupped Josie’s chin. The siphon tried to be cool and collected, but it was  _ really hard  _ when Hope was  _ that _ close and  _ that _ gentle when she touched her.

Josie was  _ really _ trying. She couldn’t be seen as a creepy weirdo, or something similar, when Hope was just trying to take her temperature. Had to be calm. Had to be collected. Had to be…

“Are you going to look me in the eyes as I do this, Jo?” Hope teased lightly, giving her a soft smile that pretty much wrecked Josie’s internal organs. “Okay, breathe out.”

Josie’s cheeks may have been really red. And her breath may have smelled extremely rotten.  _ And _ she looked like a homeless person. But nonetheless, when she breathed out, and the floating numbers that came from her mouth said, “99.6 degrees,” Hope grinned and patted the girl’s cheek. Lizzie sighed in relief, basically at the same time as her sister.

Josie climbed out of bed—this time she was allowed—and immediately toppled over. Lizzie and Hope each caught an arm, proceeding to help her over to the bathroom so she could shower. Hope really made sure to smile and laugh every time Josie stumbled, adding just a shade to Josie’s embarrassed blush. By the time they reached the showers across the hall, Josie’s face and neck were red, but at least she would get to shower. 

“Are you two gonna leave?” she asked, raising her eyebrows and leaning against the frame to the shower.

“Can you walk?” Hope asked, but it sounded more worried than teasing.

“ _ Yes _ ,” the siphon exasperated, shooing the two girls out of the room. “Thank you, but I’ll be okay.”

When the girls had finally left, and Josie was alone, she turned on the coldest water the school offered and let the embarrassment—and  _ other _ unnamed feelings—wash away.

Joisie came back to her room, wet hair curled into a topknot on her head—mostly for convenience, because the towel-wrap was heavy and wet hair on her back was annoying—and reluctantly opened up her magic binder, which tracked all of her assignments.

Right as she opened it up, a red flashing puff of magic invaded her senses. Oh, how she wished she could’ve ignored the pulsating, all-caps remainder in front of her face:  **_INTRO TO LYCANTHROPY PROJECT- DUE TOMORROW 12 PM!!!!!!!!_ ** . 

Luckily, Josie wasn’t too behind on anything else. As she sighed, siphoned magic from her binder, and had the project booklet fly towards her, she wondered how she was going to ask Hope to come over.


	4. day four cont.

“ **Come over.”** _No, too forward. And rude_.

“ **Hey so I know you were here earlier taking my temp w/ Lizzie but I still haven’t finished my werewolf-questionnaire assignment and I don’t wanna bother you but I already looked at the questions and there’s no way I’m gonna be able to answer them without your help and all cause I’ve never transformed into a werewolf [obviously] and so I don’t know what the time limit of yo—** ”  _ That’s too long and Hope will most likely laugh and leave me on read _ .

“ **Come to my dorm please? The assignment’s due tomorrow. :(** “  _ That’s horrible and so needy. Josie, why are you incapable at constructing a text message? _

“ **Remember the assignment we,** **_I_ ** **, didn’t do? It’s due tomorrow… come over?** ” Josie pondered for a second longer before squeezing her eyes shut and pressing send. If she had to rewrite and reconstruct another text message, she would go crazy. But this message was alright. Playful, fun… ignoring literally everything that conspired in the past few weeks.

A bubble of pulsing gray dots flickered on her screen, and Josie watched the redundant animation of the typing indication until her phone dinged.

_ Miss me already?  _

Josie rolled her eyes. She really should’ve expected that.  **Oh, yeah, I so missed being sick out of my mind and having you & my sister carry me to the public showers. Best moments of my life.**

_ I know :). But yeah I’ll come over, I was actually getting food so I’m not that far from your dorm. See ya. _

**Well don’t interrupt your munching for this.** Literally what does that mean, Josie? Did you fail English?

_ I don’t plan on it!!!!! I’m bringing my food. Pasta Luego? DONT quote me on that because I only took a year of Spanish. _

Josie noticed she was smiling so hard when her gums started going dry. Then she gasped, equivalent to a 1990s housewife finding out her husband was murdered, and slapped her cheeks until her smile went away. For some reason she felt like all the gods, every single one, no matter their authenticity or Josie’s religion, were staring down at her and going: “Tsk, tsk, tsk, another crush, huh, Jo-Jo?”

And it was true. She’d tried to ignore it and push it away, even risked failing her project, but it was always going to be there. From the second she and Lizzie turned eleven and Hope MIkaelson did a magic show where she conjured a black cat out of coal from her fire, saying it reminded her of Josie’s ability to rise up even when there’s nothing left, Josie had basically been head over heels. As much as an eleven year old could be.

Lizzie thought it was the most pretentious thing in the world, “I can’t believe she just came to  _ our _ birthday and showed off her magic! Like, we get it, you’re in Advanced Magic 3-4! Whatever, Hope Mikaelson! She’s not invited to the next one, okay?  _ Okay _ , Jo?”

But later that night, Josie squirmed and squealed under the sheets, thinking about Hope holding her hand, thinking about Hope kissing her cheek… She must’ve wrote about it at least twenty times in her diary. (And a lot of love notes, all undelivered.) (And one burnt. But that’s not the point.)

She didn’t have time to rekindle all of her childhood infatuations with Hope Mikaelson, because said girl was now knocking at her door.

Josie opened up her binder to her questionnaire and quickly slid over to the door, heart racing from thinking about those old memories. It was really a horrible idea that she invited Hope. Like, really, the worst idea she’s ever had. But her 4.0 GPA was at risk, and frankly the sooner she got over her crush, the better.

When she opened the door, Hope is just existing in her navy blue shorts and long-sleeved sweater, a powdered donut stuffed in her mouth— the bag of said donuts, held in one hand, a box of cosmic brownies in the other—and Josie really gets close to exploding. Distantly, in her brain, she hears a lot of explosions.

“ _ Hrero _ .” Hope mouthed through her powdered donut, which she quickly chewed and swallowed. Afterwards, she licked all the remaining powdered sugar off of her lips.

Josie turned away quicker than she knew was possible, a molten ball of lava in her abdomen, and cleared her throat. “Jeez, how’d you knock on the door with all that in your hands?”

“My head,” the russet-haired girl replied, dropping the box of brownies on Josie’s bed and knocking on her skull three times. “Very efficient.”

Josie faced her assignment partner with scrunched eyebrows. “Does your head hurt?”

The tribrid shrugged her off, “No, no, I’m okay. You do remember I fight monsters, right? Like, daily.”

“Okay, whatever, whatever,” Josie snorted, pulling the binder out and sighing. “Anyways, we better get started.”

“Right into work. That’s new.”

“Don’t be mean.”

Hope’s grin curled basically to the top of her cheeks and she leaned forward. “Okay. What’s the first question?”

Josie was really embarrassed. Like, this was horrible. Hope was right there, leaning forward, smiling, and Josie was just  _ reading a question _ ? Should she cross her legs? Should she face the tribrid? Was that too intimate? What was the perfect angle her back should be at to show Hope that she totally does _not_ have a crush on her?  _ I bet she knows I like her. I bet she knows that I’m a slippery, sapphic little snake who can’t even tell her I have a crush on— _

“Josie? Jo. Hello? You there?” Hope asked, voice trailing into pure confusion. She placed a hand on Josie's knee, giving it a tiny shake.

With that, the witch snapped back to her train of thought, red in the face, and said, verbatim: “Uh, oh, uhh, uhm, ‘Ask your werewolf partner what the first thing they did when they shifted was.’”

“Werewolf partner? Is that  _ me _ ?” Hope said sarcastically, which made Josie’s blush go deeper. Luckily, the tribrid took pity, “I tried to control all my new senses. It was crazy to be able to smell so many things, hear so many things… I had to learn to adapt to it."

Josie scribbled that down with a smile, and already her project was looking a lot less bare. Okay, maybe she could get through this without ruining her friendship with Hope.

The questions went along like that, simple and calm—some Hope couldn't necessarily answer, since she was a tribrid and not a genuine werewolf. But once the questionnaire was all filled out, Josie squealed with excitement and tucked it back in her binder. The flashing red warning soaked away into, "No assignments due," and relief was quite literally coursing through her body. Might've been a magic effect the binder gave out as a reward for being punctual.

"Was that so hard, Jo?" Hope asked, pushing a donut in her mouth.

Josie rolled her eyes and leaned into the russet-haired girl, stealing a donut for herself. "The  _ hardest _ thing I've ever done."

Hope snorted and leaned back on her palms, knocking her shoulder into Josie's. "Oh, Jo, you sound serious about that. Why were you so intent on ignoring that project anyways?"

Now that was unfair. Hope had to know. She  _ had _ to know that Josie had a disgusting schoolgirl crush on her. It was obvious, right? But Hope was oblivious, staring directly between Josie's eyes and waiting for the answer.

Josie thought about saying,  _ please kiss me _ , but instead refused to answer, pulling another donut into her mouth.

“You can’t ignore me!” she laughed, poking the witch’s side. “Seriously! Do I smell or something?”

Josie snickered and shook her head, licking her lips free of powdered sugar. Hope began to pout, but Josie was  _ immune _ . Okay, she wasn’t  _ immune _ , but she was  _ looking away _ and that had to be enough.

But Hope MIkaelson played dirty, and she knew it. The tribrid cupped Josie’s chin and forced her to look—the  _ pout _ , the  _ inescapable pout _ .

Josie’s eyes widened and suddenly she felt claustrophobic. Everything was  _ so close _ . Their breaths were mingling together and their eyes were locked, what was Josie going to do about this? What was she going to say? Did Hope say something? Did  _ she _ say something? Josie was panicking inside, but outside she was sure she was just blushing. The hand on Josie's chin felt like flowers blooming on her skin, like vines tangling up her nerves.

“I can’t believe this pout isn’t working on you.”

_ Hope Mikaelson, _ Josie cursed in her head.  _ The pout is working. Please kiss me.  _

Instead, she said, “What can I say? Your charms must be failing!”

Hope stuck out her tongue and released Josie’s chin—the brunette was literally  _ sweating _ , so she was pretty relieved about this—and reached for another donut. “Josie Saltzman, the one girl who doesn’t fall prey to my pout. Who knew?”

Josie fell back on the bed and snorted. And then she froze.  _ The only girl _ ? Was that flirting? That was flirting.  _ Or maybe you’re being stupid, and she’s just making a joke.  _ But the only  _ girl _ ? That was a telltale sign. It had to be, right? Josie wasn’t  _ completely crazy _ , right? Maybe  _ she _ needed to take the leap. Oh, this was terrifying. Her stomach was basically gurgling vinegar.

“Hope,” she began, and suddenly her throat was as dry as the inside of her powdered donut. “Do you want to know the real reason why I didn’t want to work on this project with you?”

_ What _ was she doing? For real. This was stupid. Hope didn’t—Hope  _ couldn’t _ —like her like that. Was she risking it  _ all _ ? All or  _ nothing _ ? Life isn't a gameshow. This is so  _ stupid _ , Josie! It felt like there was a little bat in her stomach knocking around her organs like golfballs.

“ _ Yes _ ,” Hope said, exasperated. “Finally!”

_ Josie don’t say it. C’mon. Stay friends. Take the careful route. Don’t— _

“I have a crush on you.”

Josie‘s stomach immediately flipped and sizzled like a pancake on a griddle at the words. Look, they’d established that Josie was weak and her brain was dry when it came to Hope. Josie's heart was now thumping almost six times a second. Regret coursed through her and she started to wonder how she had even formed this plan and thought it would work. This was something Lizzie would do, not her! And Lizzie would end up getting the girl, she always did.

Hope’s eyes widened, and her lips parted, crystal white teeth poking out. “H-Have…? Not  _ had _ ? Like-like you said after the—”

“Yes, um,” the witch’s face went red, and she looked at her unintentionally wringing hands. “The note… umm… I… I’m sorry! I shouldn't have said—I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, Hope, I swear…! But l—umm… oh…”

Hope had cupped her face, her fingers spread over her cheeks, and moved to look at the siphon’s eyes. “ _ Jeez _ , Josie, I thought you hated me.”

“I’d never…”

She trailed off at Hope chuckling to herself, still holding the brunette’s face. 

"Can I kiss you?"

Josie's vision turned pink for a second, and her heart pumped faster, her body felt like it was floating. Almost like she were in a weird dream. Oh, but she knew what she had to say. " _Absolutely_."

With a soft, extended giggle, Hope joined their lips together and smiled as she tasted the powdered sugar on the girl’s lips.

Josie melted into a puddle of butterflies and wrung her hands through the tribrid’s hair, sharing a sigh with her. Her heartbeat slowed, and then sped up as Hope rested a hand on her thigh and the other stroked her cheek. Flowers bloomed in Josie's limbs, feeling like soft tickles and tingles all around. Her body was a perfect temperature of warmth, almost like Hope was balancing their heat, keeping them the same level, all while kissing her softly.

Hope broke away, the space between them barely even there, yet it felt like they’d split a thousand miles apart, a concave ravine between them.

“Isn’t finishing your schoolwork  _ great _ , Jo?” the tribrid spoke softly, her voice smothered in honey.

Josie pulled her back for another kiss, leaving a snort on Hope's lips like a celebration gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading!!!! i appreciate all of you <3

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!! i just needed a distraction from the world rn so i wrote this


End file.
